Silicosis among workers grow even as closed units in state reopen following “casual” inspection by state pollution control body

~By Rajesh Kumar

In 2006, an NGO, People’s Rights & Social Research Centre, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, wanting the court to direct different governments to formulate rules for the treatment of silicosis. Silicosis is a dreaded occupational disease that affects workers in quarries, mines, stone blasting places, quartz grinding centres, etc.

The writ also demanded that an action programme be evolved which can help in the prevention and treatment of the disease and also provide succour to the families of workers who have died of this disease.

The court had directed the state governments to take immediate steps in addressing this problem and give compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the families of the dead workers.

On the May 1 hearing it was found that the report of the expert committee appointed by the court to look into the state of affairs in some states was not ready. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, arguing for the petitioners, said the units shut down in Gujarat for non compliance of safety norms had again started functioning.

He said that they got approval from the state pollution control board, which conducted “casual 4-5 minute inspections” of those quartz grinding sites before giving the green signal. Bhushan requested the court to direct the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to inspect all the sites again and report if they have complied with the safety norms.

The CPCB counsel agreed to instruct the board to do the needful and inform the court on the next date of hearing.

The matter will be disposed of in July.

Background

On February 8, 2014, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had submitted to the court that despite several reminders regarding the state of the quarries and on the effect of silicosis, Gujarat had not responded. The court had directed Gujarat to file its stand.

On May 4, 2016, the Supreme Court directed to implement the recommendations in the November 12, 2010 report of the NHRC in the interest of the relatives of those who died. This was especially to benefit the children of the dead. Most workers in Gujarat suffering from this disease, or who were dead, worked in quartz grinding quarries.

The CPCB has inspected the quartz grinding units in Gujarat and has said that it is the same state of affairs in different units in other quarries in Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Pondicherry, Jharkhand and Delhi.

That was when the Supreme Court (order of August 23, 2016) appointed an expert committee to investigate the compliance of the order of the court.